As Apple’s Siri voice command system grows in popularity, so have the privacy concerns stemming from the fact that Siri retains commands on Apple’s servers.

IBM, for instance, banned its employees from using Siri for official business over corporate espionage fears.

Apple doesn’t hide this fact, as it is fully disclosed in the software’s license agreement. The agreement states, “When you use Siri or Dictation, the things you say will be recorded and sent to Apple in order to convert what you say into text and, for Siri, to also process your requests.”

The agreement also informs that other information is sent to Apple as well, such as your name, nickname, the songs in your music collection, and the names in your list of contacts.

Apple maintains that it needs this data on its servers to improve Siri over time.

Samsung has disclosed to Hardware Canucks that S-Voice does this as well.

Ken Price, Samsung Canada’s Director of Mobile Marketing, explained the a smartphone simply doesn’t have the power do to the necessary computing locally so it must be done in the cloud.

Mr. Price dismisses concerns about S-Voice violating privacy, or being a tool of corporate espionage as some have alleged.

“If a company like IBM has concerns about a particular feature of the device it can be disable with enterprise management tools,” said Mr. Price.

LG has recently announced that it is planning to enter the voice-activated personal-assistant fray with Quick Voice, debuting in Korea on its Optimus Vu by the end of the month, then ostensibly heading to North America shortly thereafter.